Confession time. I was brought up Catholic and attended weekly Mass through my college years, but I became a Protestant at age 22 in 1963 in part because I did not believe in the Catholic Church’s position on birth control.Read

In the weeks following the publication of his pastoral letter to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, Archbishop Chaput answered some common questions about family planning and related issues in his regular Denver Catholic Register column. We offer our readers some of his answers. The questions are as follows.Read

An extreme form of artificial reproduction, cloning differs from artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization insofar as it is achieved without the contribution of two gametic cells; it is, consequently, asexual and agamic in character. Thus even from a biological point of view, cloning is far more radical as a method of artificial reproduction than artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, and their permutations and combinations.Read

Artificial fertilization or artificial reproduction can be a tempting consideration for the couple who has spent years suffering with the emotional pain of infertility, however, a number of ethical questions arise. In order to understand why participation in artificial reproduction conflicts with the Lord’s moral order, we must understand how artificial reproduction works.

Proponents of gay marriage frequently argue that allowing for it would have no affect whatsoever on the institution of marriage itself. Former Harvard anthropologist Stanley Kurtz, writing in the current issue of the Weekly Standard, reports on various European studies that challenge this argument. Kurtz reports that in those countries where full homosexual marriage rights have been granted, marriage and indeed concrete family structures have been considerably weakened.